A devout teen caused a scare in the air Jan. 17 when, while trying to pray, he pulled out a set of small boxes containing holy scrolls and strapped them to his arm and head during a commuter jet flight from New York to Kentucky. The Associated Press reports that a Jewish 17-year-old was using tefillin, a set of small boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps. When used for prayer, one box is strapped to the arm and one is placed on the head. The sight alarmed passengers and crew members and caused the pilot to make an unexpected landing in Philadelphia. Full Story.
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I don’t understand why they have to divert a flight just because of that. Couldn’t someone just ask the kid about his boxes, figure out that they’re harmless, end of story? This makes no sense at all. What is it, stupidity, fear? Is the pilot out of his mind? I hear the twilight zone music playing again.. And lately, it happens more and more.. Is the whole aviation industry going nuts?
The crew did exactly what the situation called for. You don’t take chances with this stuff. The thoughtless “why” people will come out and question the crew’s actions regardless of the outcome. It is best to determine if the boxes were harmless while the plane is on the ground and clear of passengers. If the boxes were later found to contain semtex instead of ancient scrolls and the pilot failed to divert, the question would have been why did the pilot keep flying when this kid was “clearly” strapping to himself some kind of explosive device disguised as a tefillin.
I don’t understand how this kid, or his parents, could have thought that strapping little black boxes to your person on a plane load of people would be such a good idea. That is the part that is stupid if you ask me.